


Little Sun

by especiallythezefronposter



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 5 Times, Asexual Character, Avengers Movie Night, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dogs, Insomnia, M/M, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Vines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 06:04:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5528801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/especiallythezefronposter/pseuds/especiallythezefronposter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times someone noticed how well Bruce and Tony fit together and one time they see it themselves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Megan (falcon-hill)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Megan+%28falcon-hill%29).



> This is a gift for Megan (falcon-hill on Tumblr) for the Science Bros Week Secret Santa!

**1.**

Jennifer hadn't seen Bruce in three years when Tony and him come by on Bruce's birthday. She almost doesn't recognize him when he steps out of the car, grinning at something Tony said before they opened the doors, ducking his head against the cold wind but keeping his shoulders upright. He isn't anything like the hunched figure that came to say goodbye all that time ago, twitchy and quiet and endlessly apologizing.

He meets her eyes and waves, still grinning, then turns towards Tony, who has left the car, too, and is trying to wrap a scarf around Bruce's neck. He himself is wearing at least two, possibly three scarves and lectures Bruce on their importance in a light but sort of serious tone. 'You need to stay warm. I don't care if you're a part-time super soldier. If you get a cold, I probably will, too. And I suck at having colds. Seriously, I had one last year and I almost, like, died from it.'

Bruce only laughs and rolls his eyes as he helps Tony put on the scarf. It's another thing that has changed: their hands brush and Bruce doesn't even seem to notice, while the last time Jen saw him he flinched if someone so much as looked at him.

Bruce only has enough time to get to the porch and hug her before the dogs round the corner of the house, barking enthusiastically at the new people. She can see the exact moment Bruce recognizes one specific dog's bark. His eyes light up and he turns and crouches. Only a moment later he has a lapful of mottled brown greyhound, licking at his face, only stopping to bark and run in small circles against Bruce's knees. 'Data,' Bruce mumbles, petting the dog's neck. 'Hey, buddy. It's been a while.'

When Jen looks up from the smile on Bruce's face, she sees Tony's smiling, too, and filming the reunion on his phone. 

He meets her eyes over his phone, then lowers it so that he can let a dog lick his hand and scratch it behind the ears. 'The team has a Vine account. This is, obviously, very important Avengers business,' he tells her.

Bruce turns his head to grin at Tony, but keeps petting Data. Jen can see his eyes are wet.

Tony comes to stand beside her. 'Hey,' he says. 'Thanks. He deserves this.'

She smiles at him. 'You're the one who set this all up,' she reminds him. 'No need to thank me.' Tony tries to say something else, but she stops him. 'You're doing a nice thing. Just take a little credit for it. I thought you'd be good at that.' 

'Nice' really doesn't cover what he's doing. Convincing Jen to return Data to Bruce after the years he'd left it in Jennifer's care while on the run was one thing, but convincing Bruce that he deserved that, that he could just ask for his dog back without feeling guilty about it, that must have been hard.

She invites them in and watches how easily they touch each other and make each other smile. When they leave she opens the Avengers Vine account on her phone, already knowing that she'll only find more evidence that her cousin has found himself a very cute boyfriend.

There's team stuff in between. Clint films a Mario Kart game between Natasha and an increasingly frustrated Tony from the vents, Bruce makes a video of a very dry interview he has with Thor and Steve while they cook and he sneaks way to many spices into the salsa they're making, then proceeds to film the team's reaction to said spices and Natasha and his reaction at their suffering. There's one of Clint trying to convince Steve to jump out of a three story window, which ends with a shot of Steve actually jumping out of a three story window.

Most of the other stuff is made by Tony, who makes videos of post-battle eating and sleeping, films sparring sessions between Steve and Thor and captions them 'You're welcome', films himself and Steve as they get Thor to put Mjölnir in an elevator and push the button for it to go up. Steve stands in front of the elevator doors sliding open on the next floor, shaking his head, and says 'The elevator isn't worthy.' while Tony laughs behind the camera. 

He films Bruce in slow motion as he sweeps the floor in the lab, films him as he plays Mario Kart and watches Bambi's mother die and while he's having a laughing fit. If he films the team, there's more Bruce than anyone else, there's even a bunch of videos that are for Bruce, or at least reference him or some joke between them.

Jennifer isn't sure if Tony has a crush on Bruce or if they're actually together, but judging from the comments section, neither does anyone else.

 

**2.**

Steve has become rather bad at sleeping. It's the dreams, obviously, but also the tiny, terrifying moment of disorientation after being unconscious for a long time, the excess energy that doubles every time he gets more than a few hours of rest and leaves him nervous and jittery. It's better to just nap for an hour or two, go to the gym and have another nap after. It's not like any of the other residents of the Tower have any sort of normal sleeping pattern anyway.

Something that's confirmed again when he is halted in the hallway by two voices coming from the kitchen at three am. It's Bruce and Tony, laughing their way through a song he doesn't know, but recognizes as a Christmas classic nonetheless. It's the kind of thing Nat hummed along with while the two of them were buying Christmas presents for the team last Saturday.

He knows Bruce and Tony sort of have a thing going on, even if he doesn't entirely get how it works. It's nothing like the traditional stuff his decade liked to promote, with flowers and chocolates and _honey, I love you_ s. Still, he might be walking in on something he isn't supposed to see if he continues to the kitchen, but that's not what it sounds like, and he also just really wants some milk.

When he walks in, Bruce and Tony look up from where they're sitting on the floor against the cabinets, sharing a packet of mini-donuts and watching something on a phone. Tony's hand is stuck in Bruce's hair, as it often is, and it's hard to tell which leg belongs to whom with the way they're draped all over each other. Also there's a greyhound asleep against Bruce's tight that he should probably ask about, but that would mean he'd drag attention towards the way their hands brush as they pet it, and he really doesn't want them to stop doing that.

'I'm just getting milk,' Steve murmurs. 'I'll be gone in a sec.'

''s Okay, Cap,' Tony says. 'We don't mind.'

Meanwhile, Bruce has pulled up another video on the phone and holds it up for Tony to see. Tony smothers his giggles in Bruce's hair as he watches it. Bruce hums in appreciation and leans into the touch, smiling.

Steve might not really get what they have, but he's sure glad they have it at all.

 

**3.**

During daytime, Thor often finds himself watching the Channel of Science, where he learns about the (quite modest) scientific conquests of man and, full of pride, watches programmes Tony and Bruce appeared in for charity and the documentary about Steve's 70 years on ice and what those can teach us about the human brain. This time of relaxation is not often interrupted, for his fellow Avengers have other business to attend to. Especially now, during the holiday season, they are busy buying presents and visiting friends, both of which he has done aplenty last week, when he went to France with Jane, Darcy and Selvig.

Bruce and Tony are not only busy with the festivities that come with the season but also with their new addition to the team, as Thor is reminded when Data comes bounding into the living room to jump against Thor's legs. He pets the dog and scratches it behind its ears affectionately. The scientists had only introduced Data during breakfast this morning, but Thor already loves the dog dearly, if only because he loves any dog, and because of how happy Bruce seems when he's with it. The dog seems to feel the same way about Thor and lies down on top of Thor's feet.

Bruce and Tony enter only moments after, Bruce stifling a yawn as Tony tells him a story in a notably quiet voice. 'And then he just goes, 'Boom, are you looking for this?' And it's so funny because we all act like we're not impressed,' - he yawns, too - 'and it annoys the hell out of him, but then when he tells it to the civilians he's so fucking proud when they all go 'wow'. You should see his face, it's adorable. I know he's from the army and all that, but you'll love him. Just don't act impressed if he tells you that story, his face is too good.' He yawns again and, quite unexpectedly lets himself fall onto the nearest couch. And then, even more unexpectedly, Bruce does the same. On the same couch, which surely is large enough for the both of them, but Thor knows it isn't customary to use a couch this way on Midgard. Still, he does not feel it is his place to comment.

Tony is already reaching for Bruce's hair as he tells him to go away. 'This is my couch,' he mumbles. 'You get your own.'

'But this is the best couch,' Bruce says into his hair. 'This is my favourite couch.'

'I'm your favourite couch,' Tony mumbles into Bruce's shoulder as he winds one of Bruce's curls around his finger. Bruce snickers. It must be one of their many private jokes.

Not much later they are both fast asleep, leaving Thor to wonder how he never realised the extent of their relationship before.

 

**4.**

Clint is not sure why Wall-E is a Christmas movie, or why robot friends are making him this emotional, but he's sure Tony had a solid argument at some point and therefore this can be entirely blamed on him.

Cap catches Clint's eye when the latter looks away from the screen, blinking fast. 'Getting emotional there, buddy?', he asks, smiling mildly. Fucking asshole.

'I'm crying at the fucking heteronormativity if this film, that's all. We should make some rule that we can only watch really gay movies, since we're all pansexual anyways.'

'Except for Bruce,' Natasha interjects. 'And you're not making sense, but we get it, you're really emotional right now. It's sort of like when Bambi's mother died right?' Fucking asshole. They all cried during that movie, it wasn't just him. It can't be just him now, either. Everyone should be sad about amnesiac robots.

'Bruce, you're panromantic, so you're okay with this rule, too, right? We should do a vote.' He looks over at Bruce, who's sitting in front of the couch, leaning against Tony's knees and petting the dog in his lap as Tony plays with his hair. 

His face looks tight, closed, like he isn't okay with this at all and then Tony leans down with this confused frown and mumbles, only to Bruce. 'I thought you said you were pansexual? What's the, like - what comes before the sexual, then?'

There's a silence as Bruce swallows. 'I'm asexual,' he says softly, like he's ashamed. Usually he's pretty open about his sexuality. Clint had assumed Tony had known long before the rest of them, with how close they are and all.

'Oh,' Tony says. 'I didn't know that. Why didn't I know that?'

Bruce tilts up his head so that it's resting between Tony's knees and he can meet Tony's eyes. 'You don't think it's weird?'

'Why would I think it's weird?'

'Because you, like, you love sex.'

'So I can't empathize with people who don't?'

Bruce doesn't say anything, but stays in that position, although it must be uncomfortable, and swallows. His eyes are shiny and intense and Clint feels like he isn't supposed to see this, so he looks away. 'So you're okay with it?'

'Yeah. Yeah I am. I'm sorry I made you think I wouldn't be.' Tony crawls down from the couch to sit down beside Bruce and rests his head on his shoulder.

'It's not your fault,' Bruce whispers back.

Clint wants to tell him none of them would mind if they kiss in front of the team, that they all already know they're together anyways, but he feels like that would be sort of a weird thing to say.

 

**5.**

Natasha's room is a floor below Tony's, but two floors above Bruce's, so when she gets into the lift that morning, and not only Tony, but also Bruce is already in it, it doesn't take much skill to figure out what that means. She should have guessed as much when they left movie night together. 

They still look sleepy and Bruce is sort of leaning against Tony's back with his eyes half-shut. 'Morning, Nat,' he mumbles and Tony echoes the sentiment as he turns to push all of Bruce’s curls to the top of his head. He keeps them there with two fingers as he turns to grin at Natasha.

'Look! He doesn't even care.'

'I don't,' Bruce confirms. He's wearing Iron Man pyjamas, Tony is wearing Hulk ones.

Natasha smiles and supplies a hair-tie, which Tony takes happily and uses to tie off the bun on top of Bruce's head.

'You're so pretty, Big Guy,' he says.

'I slept for like, eight hours in the last week. Of course I'm pretty.'

Tony pulls him into a hug. 'We'll sleep more after breakfast. My therapist taught me all these tricks to keep nightmares away. We'll try them.'

Bruce puts a hand on Tony's shoulder, but that's about as much as he can manage. 'You don't have to feel guilty about having nightmares, it's not -'

'It's keeping you from sleeping, meaning the next step is that you go back to your own bed, which I'd really like to avoid.' He steps back, eyes flashing to Natasha like he suddenly realises they're not being the most average platonic friends. She waves her hand to let him know she doesn't care and he smiles slightly before turning back to Bruce. 'You do want this to become a regular thing, right?', he asks softly.

The lift doors slide open on the common floor and the three of them get out. 

'I do,' Bruce says. 'It's only, like, a little weird.'

Tony can't keep the smile from breaking out over his face. 'Are you going to take out the bun?', he asks as they enter the kitchen. Steve and Thor are there already, but Clint must still be asleep.

'Not yet,' Bruce says.

Natasha smiles sweetly at Steve and Thor, knowing that she's going to win the bet.

 

**And 1 time.**

'JARVIS,' Tony calls, voice muted by his surroundings. 'Stability report.'

There's a pause, JARVIS leaves it consciously, like a human would when trying to point out how ridiculous they find something and cannot believe they are expected to take it seriously. 'Your contraption is as stable as can be expected of a pillow fort. Which, I might add, is not very stable at all.'

Tony leans back against the soft wall behind him and grins at Bruce, ignoring JARVIS. 'We're geniuses,' he says.

'In a pillow fort,' Bruce deadpans.

Tony nods, grin not fading. 'My point exactly.' They're sitting opposite each other, legs touching, and Tony leans forward to take Bruce's hand. JARVIS monitors anything that happens to Sir, including the small touches that pass between Dr. Banner and him, more and more often each day. More things have changed: the amount of meals Sir eats has increased, the amount of time he spends alone has decreased steeply, so has the amount of alcohol he consumes. 

He laughs more often, too, mostly because of Dr. Banner, which helps JARVIS to discover a flaw in his coding he cannot fix. To say he _likes_ the doctor would be inaccurate. It's a human emotion he is not capable of, but Dr. Banner is good for Sir, and therefore, looked after by JARVIS with the same - affection. 

They are quiet for a while, simply sitting in their quite elaborate pillow fort, which covers most of Bruce's now unused bedroom. 

'You're not gonna sleep?', Tony asks eventually. 'I know this isn't anything my therapist recommended, but I used to sleep in these as a kid and it helps.'

'The lights sure are comforting,' Bruce notes as he reaches up to touch the Christmas lights JARVIS made sure wouldn't be a fire hazard. 'But I'm not ready to sleep yet.'

There's another silence, this time broken by Bruce. 'Don't you think we'd be good together?', he says, quietly.

'We are. We're being good together right now.' Tony strokes Bruce's hand in a methodical way, like Pepper Potts once did to him, comforting, relaxing, thoroughly affectionate.

'I mean in a romantic relationship. Nothing would change except what we call - this.' He gestures at them and how close together they are. 'It would just be more accurate, I think, and the team could finally settle their bet.'

Tony's eyebrows go up in surprise. 'They are betting on us?'

Bruce nods. 'Have been for at least a week. On whether we're already together, or not yet.'

Tony is serious now, and holds Bruce's gaze steadily. 'You know I'm notoriously bad at relationships. And you know I excel at screwing serious shit up.'

Bruce shrugs. 'We don't have to be serious. We're not now, are we? And we've had fights before, none of which went any worse than should be expected. You haven't come anywhere close to screwing up and you're not going to, either. I won't let you.'

Tony laughs. 'That's the most romantic shit anyone has ever said to me and you haven't even kissed me yet.'

'I should, though, right?', Bruce asks with a grin.

Tony is still smiling as he sits up on his knees to get closer to Bruce and leans in.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Little Moon by First Aid Kit
> 
> Also it'd be cool if you sent me prompts at sleeplesslyembracing.tumblr.com!


End file.
